Saturday, April 28, 2012

Sure enough. There was water pouring from the ceiling, and it was flowing all
over the quilt I had lopped over my quilting frame, all over the carpet, and
barely missing my quilting machine.

So that’s why the upstairs toilet kept running and running, no matter how many
times I took the lid off and readjusted the float/plunger/rubber flap thingy.
Turns out, it wasn’t leaking in the tank, it was leaking at the valve. A few
times during the day, I’d just turned it completely off – so that prevented
more of a flood. And those few times I carried stuff downstairs to put away
must have occurred during the times I had the water turned off, so I never
noticed anything wrong.

Trouble is, where the water dripped onto the quilt, the reds ran into the
whites!!! Why, why, why? – when I’d washed all that fabric in hot water with
plenty of detergent, before ever cutting it? I then dried it in the dryer…
nothing ran or bled at all. But now cold water drips onto it, and it bleeds,
and the off-whites are pinkish red.

I threw it into the washer – no, I
struggled and struggled to put it in and then called for help from Caleb and
Victoria (that thing is heavy! – especially when it’s all wet) – and put in
some color-catcher sheets. One time through the washer didn’t solve the problem;
it was still pink in the off-white fabric. I rewashed it, and today I took it
out on the deck to dry.

There were still pink spots.

The problem is, it’s so crammed into
the washer, there isn’t room for it to slosh around, so the color-catchers
can’t really do their job.

I tried spraying Resolve on those
few spots, then pouring water on them...

The pink grew and darkened and
spread, quite a lot like the Cat in the Hat's pink ring in the tub. And I
didn't have Thing One and Thing Two to help me out, either.

Sooo... I gathered it up, put three
more color-catcher sheets right on top of those pink spots, folded it so that
the sheets would stay put, and Larry helped me cram it into the washer.

The next time I pulled it out, all
the pink spots were nearly entirely gone. Whew. But I'll doubtless
have to use the color-catchers every time I wash it. Why did it do that,
when it hadn't done it at all when I first washed all the fabrics?

I decided this pillow wasn't quite
done after all -- it was in need of a big button. I picked up one of my
button boxes that's full of old buttons that used to be my mother's, and there
was the button, right on top. Furthermore, it has a twin, so the other
same-size pillow will have a matching button.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Today, after interruptions by Easter
sewing, services, and company, I finally put the binding (very dark burgundy
velour) on the Jewel Box Log Cabin quilt and put together the top for the first
of six decorative toss pillows.